A 10 bit, 1.8 GS/s Time Interleaved Pipeline ADC M. Åberg 2, A. Rantala 2, V. Hakkarainen 1, M. Aho 1, J. Riikonen 1, D. Gomes Martin 2, K. Halonen 1 1 Electronic Circuit Design Laboratory Helsinki University of Technology, Finland 2 VTT, Finland
Outline Specifications for ADC Time interleaved Pipeline ADC Nonidealities, calibration Architecture Circuit block design Experimental results Summary 2
Specifications for ADC A satellite communicational system for ESA (European Space Agency) 1.8 GS/s, 10 bit resolution Signal bandwidth up to 500 MHz As low power consumption as possible A time interleaved pipeline ADC topology was selected A conventional flash topology was found to have too high power consumption @ 10 bit 3
Time Interleaved (TI) Pipeline ADC Conversion rate can be increased by using timeinterleaved pipeline ADC Resolution range (8 10 bits) suitable for pipeline topology Calibration is needed to overcome device mismatch and nonidealities
Nonidealities of the TI ADC, #1 Offset Device mismatch in opamps Charge injection of sampling switches Tones f s k/m Constant error Gain mismatch Capacitor mismatch Limited performance of opamp Unwanted sidebands to the output spectrum ± f in ± f s k/m, k=1, 2, 3,, M 1 } } Multiplying CALIBRATION output data by proper coefficients (M = number of channels)
Nonidealities of the TI ADC, #2 Timing mismatch Timing skew causes spurs at the same frequencies as gain mismatch input frequency dependent Can be avoided by using a full speed sample and hold (S/H) circuit or tunable delay locked loop (DLL) Sampling clock jitter degrades SNR by increasing noise floor } CALIBRATION The goal is to minimize skew in the clock path to the sampling switches This can be done by adjusting the delay of DLL
24 Channel ADC, #1 6x4 10 bit 80MS/s pipeline ADCs ADC pair utilize doublesampling and shares same front end S/H circuit Resolution Stage : 1.5 bits+ 2 bits (flash) Number of stages : 8+1
24 Channel ADC, #2 Performance vs. power consumption Large die size causes problems Parasitics (matching) Power supply Clock feedthrough
Biasing of ADC channels Bias circuit for each stage Local current mirrors for 4 channel ADCs Current mirrors for reference (input) current A single off chip bias current Tolerance against parasitics from long distances
Bootstrapped Input S/H Switch Used in first stage as sampling switch Insensitive to input voltage amplitude variations Gate voltage of switch transistor is connected to follow the input voltage
Differential pair comparator Input Switch A cross connected differential pairs generate a differential current Cross coupled inverters are used as latch The clock signal V latch zeros the outputs every half of the clock cycle Benefits: Fast operation & low power consumption
Operational amplifier BiCMOS telescopic OTA Relatively low current consumption The CMFB loop is realised using standard SCcircuit NPN transistors better vs. nmos transistors Larger g m & lower V sat Swing is maximised by separating the common mode levels of the input and output Gain > 70 db and high bandwidth can be achieved Slewing limited C L M 7 M 8 V b2 M 5 M 6 V out V out + V b3 V b1 Q 1 Q 2 V in + M 1 M 2 V in M 9 V cmfb C L determines power consumption by setting the minimum current
Operational amplifier, simulation results 1st stage OpAmp PWR A 0 GBW V in,pp PM 6.6 mw 71 db 1385 MHz 0.5 V 72.4 o
Clock generation for ADC 24 clock signals required A phase shift of 15 deg between signals High requirements for timing errors Jitter Skew DLL based clock generator Digital skew calibration for each phase
Clock generation for ADC, DLL A high performance external clock Mtron, M650 311 Mhz, Jitter below 0.5 ps (BW= 12 khz 80 MHz) A DLL (delay locked loop) 6 differential stages Cross coupled inverters div by 2 circuits Digital skew calibration of each phase
Clock generation for ADC, skew calibration #1 Matching of delays between phases extremely critical 0.5 ps timing accuacy required Delay between signals is affected by Matching of active components Asymmetry of parasitics (also power lines!!) A maximum symmetry was utilized for all components Component/wiring size & orientation Multiple power supply pads Dummy components/wiring in all 'asymmetric' nodes
Clock generation for ADC, skew calibration #2 Some skew elements can not be removed Matching due to process tolerance Asymmetric routing between DLL and ADC channels Delay verniers were designed for each phase signal Tiny capacitors (10 ff) were coupled to signal metallization Capacitive loading to signal line was altered with MOS switch A 8 bit capacitance array to each line A resolution of 0.5 ps
Data synchronization RSD coding Two alternative output modes 4 to 1 muxes (@ 311MS/s) Sub sampling (@ 77MS/s) Digital Domain, #1
Output modes: High speed 4 to 1 muxing ~ 320 MS/s data rate Sensitive to process variations, temperature Sub sampling Digital Domain, #2 Every 5th sample is driven to outputs
Experimental results, background A 0.35 µm SiGe BiCMOS technology (AMS) BJT's were only utilized in OPAMP's Area 5.8 x 6.9 mm 2, 215.000, devices Wirebonded directly to PCB 4 layer, fine pitch Microcaps for decoupling supplies A heat sink applied top of gloptop
Experimental results, summary(1) TABLE I. PERFORMANCE SUMMARY Resolution 10 bits Sample Rate 1.8GS/s Power cons. 3.5W SFDR @f in =29.7MHz 66.2dB @ f in =764MHz 57.5dB ENOB (@f in =29.7MHz) 8.31 bits (@f in =764MHz) 7.19 bits Technology 0.35 µm BiCMOS Area 5.8x6.9 mm 2
Experimental results, summary (2) Power consumption 3.5 3.9 W analog part 2.2 2.6 W (variation from chip to chip) digital part 1.3 1.8 W depends heavily on switching frequency of the data main power eater: output pad buffers the circuit at the limits of the process digital performance Calibration: manual for a production version on chip calibration circuit recommended
Experimental results, summary (3) Yield and Reliability the circuit is not radiation tested large chip limited yield? high power high operating temperature needs a heat sink reduces performance in terms of SNR increases gain errors circuit at the speed limit of the process variations and changes in the delays critical parasitic capacitances limit the pipeline performance and define the maximum reasonable analog power consumption the process has only 4 metal layers analog power supply lines non symmetrical non optimum data or clock lines
Acknowledgments This work has been supported by European Space Agency, contract nr. AO/1 3939/01/NL/JSC The authors are grateful to Dr. Jacek Flak for layout help